Cougars win first game of season, play again today at 5:30
Junior Varsity Cougars go for tourney title today at 2:15
By RODNEY YOUNG
The Patriot
Cougars win, Cougars win! It wasn’t pretty, it was a hard fought game, but the Pulaski County Cougars got into the win column Wednesday night with a 59-55 victory over the Fort Chiswell Pioneers in the First Community Bank Tournament at Fort Chiswell High School.
The Cougars got 12 points apiece from Lane Nester and Jele Green. Marcus Reed and Tootie O’Dell both contributed eight points. Chandler Hollins chipped in with six as did Khalib Horton.
Fort Chiswell got 13 points from Nathan Norris and 11 from Logan Selfe. Brady Kelly and Brayden Billings had eight points each in the loss.
The Cougars (1-7) lead at intermission 31-27 playing against the Pioneer 2-3 zone. Coach Tyler Cannoy then made an adjustment as he decided to use both his big men – Jele Green and Marcus Reed – against the Pioneer zone.
Pulaski County hadn’t burnt the nets up in the first half from their outside shooting. The move proved to be a good one as Green and Reed hit each other on the high and low in the lane. The two bigs scored 10 points and helped control the boards to help pull out the victory.
Horton hit six of eight free-throws in the fourth quarter as the senior was seeing just his second game action in the season coming off a foot injury.
Nester, the other Cougar who has missed action due to an injury, led the Cougars for the second straight game in scoring.
The third quarter saw the Cougars outscore the homestanding Pioneers, 12-10 to stretch their lead to six, 43-37 going into the final period.
Fort Chiswell cut the deficit to one, 47-46, with 3:30 left in the game, but couldn’t get any closer as Nester scored five consecutive points to put the Cougars up, 52-46.
This is when Horton would hit a couple free-throws after a Pioneer made three to put the score at 54-49. Tootie O’dell would hit one of two free-throws after a Pioneer bucket and it was 55-51 with 40 seconds remaining.
Horton hit one of two freebies and Fort Chiswell hit a bucket to cut the Cougar lead to just three, 56-53 with 14 seconds to go.
O’Dell would hit two more from the charity stripe and Horton would get the final point with four seconds left on the clock as the Cougars held on for their first victory.
“We played hard again tonight,” said a happy and relieved Cougar head coach Tyler Cannoy. “It’s the second game now with all our players dressed and our two bigs played really well. They passed and shot the ball really well as well as rebounding it also.”
Eight Cougar players got into the scoring column for the win.
The win sent the Cougars into a fifth place game in the tournament against Carroll County Thursday afternoon at 5:30.
The Cougar junior varsity picked up a big win over Fort Chiswell in the winner’s bracket game, 56-46.
The win sent the young Cougars to the championship game against Carroll County Thursday at 2:15.
Johnny Anderson had a double-double scoring a game-high 23 points and pulled down 16 rebounds.
Jalere Harlow had eight points, Savion Thompson five. Braxton Merchant, Chase Lawrence and Silas Sweet all chipped in with four points each.
Fort Chiswell got 19 points from Zayne Sayers and 11 from Eli Armbrister.
PC – 59 Fort Chiswell 55
Scoring – PC – Turner 2 , Hollins 6, O’Dell 8, Green 12, Horton 6, O’Neal 5, Nester 12, Reed 8
FC – Sutphin 3, Billings 8, Kelly 8, Kennedy 5, Selfe 11, Norris 13, Stoots 7
3-Pt. Goals – PC – 4 ( Hollins 2, O’Dell, Nester), FC – 4 ( Norris 2, Sutphin, Stoots)
Total FG’s- PC – 21, FC – 20
FT’s – PC – 13 -23, FC – 11 -19
Fouls – PC – 16, FC – 19
Fouled Out – FC – Billings
Technicals -None